James M. Hill*

One of eight children in his family, James Hill was born in 1889, in Dover, Ohio. As a child, he sold newspapers and worked in Dover's steel mills, making less than 12 cents an hour.

After graduating from high school, he joined the B&O Railroad as a billing clerk. Two years later, he returned to the steel mills and became an assistant at the Reeves Manufacturing Company in Dover. He worked his way up to management in several steel companies. In 1922, he became the manager of a new company, Weirton Steel. He went on to manage other ailing steel companies and became known as the "doctor of sick plants."

A positive thinker, Hill was fond of saying, "It can be done, and if anyone can do it, why can't I?" In 1947, he retired from the steel industry and started Hill Enterprises, which included a foundry for cast iron soil pipes and fittings.